The Work of the Holy Spirit

of holiness, and Peter as the “Spirit,” indicating that they do not refer to a work of the Holy
Spirit in opposition to the spirit of Jesus, but in which His spirit agreed and cooperated. And
this harmonizes with Christ’s own words, that in the resurrection He would not be passive,
but active: “I have power to lay down life and I have power to take it again. This command-
ment I have received of My Father.” The apostles declare again and again not only that Jesus
was raisedfrom the dead, but that He has risen. He had thus foretold it, and the angels said:
“Behold, He is risen.”
Hence we reach this conclusion, that the work of the Holy Spirit in the resurrection was
different from that in the humiliation; was similar to that in the creation; and was performed

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from withinby the Spirit who dwelt in Himwithout measure, who continued with Him
through His death, and in whose work His own spiritfully concurred.
The work of the Holy Spirit in the exaltation of Christ is not so easily defined. The
Scripture never speaks of it in connection with His ascension, His sitting at the right hand
of the Father, nor with the Lord’s second coming. Its connection with the descent at Pentecost
will be treated in its proper place. Light upon these points can be obtained only from the
scattered statements concerning the work of the Holy Spirit upon human nature in general.
According to Scripture, the Holy Spirit belongs to our nature as the light to the eye; not only
in its sinful condition, but also in the sinless state. From this we infer that Adam, before he
fell was not without His inworking; hence that in the heavenly Jerusalem our human nature
will possess Him in richer, fuller, more glorious measure. For our sanctified nature is a
habitation of God through the Spirit—Ephes. ii. 22.
If, therefore, our blessedness in heaven consists in the enjoyment of the pleasures of
God, and it is the Holy Spirit who comes into contact with our innermost being, it follows
that in heaven He can not leave us. And upon this ground we confess, that not only the elect,
but the glorified Christ also, who continues to be a true man in heaven, must therefore
forever continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This our churches have always confessed
in the Liturgy: “The same Spirit which dwelleth in Christ as the Head and in us as His
members.”
The same Holy Spirit who performed His work in the conception of our Lord, who at-
tended the unfolding of His human nature, who brought into activity every gift and power
in Him, who consecrated Him to His office as the Messiah, who qualified Him for every
conflict and temptation, who enabled Him to cast out devils, and who supported Him in
His humiliation, passion, and bitter death, was the same Spirit who performed His work in
His resurrection, so that Jesus was justified in the Spirit (1 Tim. iii. 16), and who dwells now
in the glorified human nature of the Redeemer in the heavenly Jerusalem.
In this connection it should be noticed that Jesus said of His body: “Destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it up.” The Temple was God’s habitation on Zion; hence it was

XXIII. The Holy Spirit in the Glorified Christ